Seth's Preliminary Top 50 Twins Prospects

Now that the TwinsCentric Offseason Handbook is available, it’s time for me to hunker down and dive head-first into the 2013 version of the Twins Prospect Handbook. It’s hard to believe that this will be the 5th annual prospect book already. I enjoy doing the research and the writing, for sure.

As I did last year, I want to welcome your feedback. To encourage that, I am sharing my early, preliminary Top 50 Twins Prospect list. As I research and write over the next two months, it is not only subject to change, but likely to change.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]So, here is my preliminary Top 50 list without much comment. Please feel free to discuss, disagree, ask questions, mention players that I didn’t, and generally just chat away.

Seth’s Preliminary Top 50

[TABLE="width: 217"]

Rank

Player

POS

1

Miguel Sano

3B

2

Byron Buxton

OF

3

Aaron Hicks

OF

4

Oswaldo Arcia

OF

5

Eddie Rosario

2B

6

Kyle Gibson

RHP

7

Jose (JO) Berrios

RHP

8

Max Kepler

OF

9

Kennys Vargas

1B

10

Joe Benson

OF

11

Travis Harrison

3B

12

Adrian Salcedo

RHP

13

Danny Santana

SS

14

Chris Herrmann

C/OF

15

BJ Hermsen

RHP

16

Alex Wimmers

RHP

17

Adam Walker

OF

18

Mason Melotakis

LHP

19

Jorge Polanco

IF

20

Pedro Hernandez

LHP

21

Danny Ortiz

OF

22

Matt Summers

RHP

23

Luke Bard

RHP

24

Levi Michael

2B

25

Hudson Boyd

RHP

26

Nate Roberts

OF

27

Niko Goodrum

SS

28

Kuo-Hu Lo

RHP

29

Michael Tonkin

RHP

30

Madison Boer

RHP

31

Bruce Pugh

RHP

32

JD Williams

OF

33

Angel Mata

RHP

34

DJ Baxendale

RHP

35

Tyler Duffey

RHP

36

JT Chargois

RHP

37

Zach Jones

RHP

38

Randy Rosario

LHP

39

Jason Wheeler

LHP

40

Josh Burris

RHP

41

Matt Hauser

RHP

42

Josue Montanez

LHP

43

Tom Stuifbergen

RHP

44

Dereck Rodriguez

OF

45

Corey Williams

LHP

46

Romy Jimenez

OF

47

Austin Malinowski

LHP

48

Tyler Jones

RHP

49

Brett Lee

LHP

50

Jeremias Pineda

OF

[/TABLE]

There you have it, 1-50. There are some names that I’m sure we all think have been left off. Guys like Pat Dean and Lance Ray and Evan Bigley have been on the list before. Left-handers who pitched incredibly well in Beloit (like David Hurlbut, Matt Tomshaw and 2012 draft pick Taylor Rogers) could be on this list. Minnesota native and former Gophers infielder Nate Hanson did a terrific job for the Rock Cats this year, especially after moving to second base. Fellow Rock Cat James Beresford would be on this list, but at this point, he has not re-signed with the Twins. Aderlin Mejia was an All-GCL choice this year. Candido Pimentel was the Appy League MVP.

To come up with a Top 10 list of Twins prospects this year is really easy. However, I have not had this much trouble starting at about 16 or so in my 7-8 years of making these types of lists. It’s not that there isn’t some really good talent. There are a lot of players who were just recently drafted. There are some really talented, potentially impact relievers. Injuries have had some effect on this list, no question.

I feel like Kyle Gibson, who I ranked #6, should be several places higher. However, I just can’t get myself to move him in front of the top 5. But that’s a great place to start the discussion. I think most would agree with who is in the top seven on this list, but what order would you have them in?